Stefano Villanti has been appointed managing director of Leonardo Helicopters, bringing extensive experience in Leonardo’s rotorcraft business to the role.

Villanti has held senior leadership positions within Leonardo for the past 10 years, including leading sales, marketing and contracts for the last three years. As managing director, he will focus on delivering on commitments to customers, advancing the helicopter business’s industrial strategy and achieving its growth objectives.

CEO and general manager Lorenzo Mariani says: “Rotorcraft technology, with its unique performance, versatility and capability features, continues to provide an invaluable contribution across all defence, public service and civil markets. We are committed to further strengthening this strategic area of business, increasingly benefiting from synergies across our entire organisation. I wish Stefano Villanti, in his new role, and his team continued success.”

Villanti says: “Leonardo is a major global player in the rotorcraft industry, a sector that, like much of the wider aerospace, defence and security landscape, is navigating a period of considerable change. This environment calls for a balanced approach: continuity in execution and performance, combined with a careful assessment of longer-term priorities and the opportunities most valuable to maintaining and strengthening Leonardo’s competitiveness.

“With customers at the centre of everything we do, we will place acceleration in execution and innovation at the core of how we work, while continuing to enhance quality.”